house speaker john boehner and his aides were quietly conducting behind the scenes fiscal cliff talks with the white house. on capitol hill for one day at least, all was pretty quiet. posturing and finger pointing kind of stopped. cnn political reporter shannon travis joins us now live from washington. what's the the latest on the talks or the silence? >> the silence seems to be golden, john. remember last week when all the players involved seem to be posturing and positioning and talking about negotiations? not so much, at least in the past few days. we know president obama and house speaker john boehner had a one-on-one meeting, right, on sunday, their first since mid-november. what were the details from that meeting and from the ongoing discussions? they're not really -- both sides are not really being forthcoming with what the substance of those conversations, both sides yesterday, the white house and the republican leadership put out statements. they're essentially the same. i'll read just one from boehner's press secretary. discussions with the white house are taking place but w